Longwood University Athletics

By CHRIS COOK
LongwoodLancers.com

Graduation is a bittersweet time for many. Four years of hard work in the classroom, and a revelatory phase of personal growth culminate in the span of a few hours on graduation day, which for Longwood takes place this Saturday on Wheeler Mall.

But after the caps have been tossed, photos taken and diplomas framed, the prospect of entering the "real world" will loom large for many. With that comes anxiety about which direction to go once the walk across the graduation stage ends and the trek into post-college life begins.

However, for Longwood women's basketball senior Rosemary Ilang, there is no such uncertainty.

When Ilang receives her Bachelor of Science in sociology this Saturday, she already knows what direction she'll be headed. The FCT-Abuja, Nigeria, native has her sights set on a career in coaching, and she's spent the past eight months mapping out her path to get there.

But Ilang's coaching aspiration isn't the last-ditch grasp of an athlete who simply isn't quite ready to give up the game. The profession wasn't even on her radar – at least consciously – until this past year when an unfortunate preseason injury forced her to the sideline and effectively derailed her final year of college basketball.

However, when the door to on-court success closed, another opened, and with some encouragement from first-year head coach Rebecca Tillett, Ilang decided to step through.

"I talked to coach Tillett about coaching, and she was like 'Huh, it's pretty interesting you brought that up because there's actually a program you might be interested in," Ilang said. "I didn't know anything about it."

That program was the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) 'So You Want to be a Coach' course, which provides female student-athletes the experience and connections needed to lay the foundation for a career in coaching. The WBCA assembles experienced coaches and administrators who provide knowledge, networking opportunities and other resources to help interested coaches-to-be prepare for the profession and secure positions after graduation.

This year's program took place at the WBCA National Convention in Tampa, Fla., during a three-day span in early April where Ilang joined fellow student-athletes from college programs around the nation. But acceptance into the program was far from automatic, and it took almost Longwood's entire women's basketball program to help Ilang get it done.

"When coach told me about it, registration was closing in two days," Ilang said. "She looked it up and said she would help if it was something I really wanted to do. I had to make a video about why I wanted to be a coach, clean up my resume, and pull together a lot of different materials."

Ilang rushed through the process with the help of Longwood's coaching staff and some of her teammates, specifically sophomore Mallory Odell who helped with the video. It was a buzzer-beater, but Ilang just made the deadline, and one month later, she received an email notifying her she had been accepted.

"I was so excited I couldn't wait. I called everyone, I called the coaches, I called my sister, called Kristina [Antonenko] and everyone on the team and told them," Ilang said. "I called Michaela [Ellis] from our team last year, and she said she would see me there. I talked to friends in the past who did this program and they actually had success and went on to coach at some schools I know of."

In Tampa, Ilang connected with dozens of current and former college head coaches, as well as the administrators who hire them. She went through workshops, took in roundtable discussions and networked with peers who have similar aspirations. Now coupled with all the experience she gained as a student coach on Longwood's bench this season, she has a defined path of where she wants to go and how she wants to get there, as well as realistic expectations of what she's getting into.

"My initial perspective of coaching is totally different from what I see now," she said. "It's not an easy job. You can't just wake up and say I want to do it; you have to put in 100 percent of your time.

Despite those unglamorous realities of the coaching profession Ilang has witnessed in her newfound role in the Longwood women's basketball program, she is still in love with the profession.

"Watching our coaches in practice and games, and learning from them, it's intimidating but it's something I can see myself doing for a long time," she continued. "It's a little bit scary knowing you'll be putting yourself out there, having to teach the right drills and fundamentals and just generally being confident in what you have to say. But coach Tillett did a lot to prepare me this year, and I'm thankful that my injury turned into such an eye-opening experience."

During her time on the sideline in 2018-19, Ilang went from downtrodden to reenergized. She assisted with practice, coached her teammates, took on in-game duties and even began learning the intricacies of film study and opponent scouting. Most of all, she found a new calling, and it's one that she is ready to begin after the pomp and circumstance of Saturday's commencement concludes.

"When I found out I wasn't going to be able to play this year, I was really down, but I said I was going to find a way to stay positive about it," Ilang said. "What helped was my coaching staff always being supportive. That helped me stay relaxed and not as jumpy, and the really did a lot to allow me to help the team in different ways."

Coming back from adversity is nothing new for Ilang, who has suffered her fair share. Her father died when she was five, and her mother passed away when she was a teenager. She came to the United States in 2012 at the urging of a scout who saw her play in Nigeria, essentially starting her life anew as an immigrant in Massachusetts. But she persevered through each of those seemingly insurmountable turns in her life, which ultimately prepared her for her most recent turn at Longwood.

"Rosemary is a gift to our program," Tillett said. "She earned the nickname 'Mama Rose' for her nurturing presence. Whenever an athlete is sidelined with an injury, there is a level of disappointment, and when a senior is unable to finish their final season, it carries more weight. Rosemary has had more than her share of adversity, and people with stories of triumph through adversity often share a common thread. They have a positive spirit and a relentless 'get back up attitude.'

"When Rosemary shared that she had an interest in coaching, I immediately thought of the 'So You Want To Be A Coach' program. Former student-athletes I have coached have always spoken highly of their experience. Coach Tiff[any Sardin] participated early in her career. Our staff had a quick deadline to meet, and every member helped in some way. Rosemary's teammates rallied, and she worked quickly to update her resume. What she's done this year and how seriously she's taken to what it requires to be a coach is one of many examples of how Rosemary represents our program with class. I cannot wait to see her growth in the coaching profession."

Now Ilang is fewer than 24 hours away from earning her degree and embarking on a career path she discovered at Longwood. 

"Sometimes things happen, and like they say, 'When one door closes, another one opens,'" she said. "For me, the door to playing closed, but another one opened, and now I have this opportunity to become a coach. It's something I really want to do and I'm passionate about, and I'm excited to take the next step."

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